Do you read people’s writings about covid? I don’t, if I can help it, for the following reasons:

• Unless the writer of an article about what the government has done wrong has some relevant specialist knowledge or experience in pandemic management or epidemiology I don’t want to waste my time. I’ll be able to hear all that the next time I can go to a pub. See also Twitter Toxicity: Beware The Ultracrepidarians

• If the article is about how many books they’ve written, talks they’ve given or clients they’ve acquired during lockdown, I think that is highly insensitive to the people who have lost their jobs or struggled on low income. Stop crowing!

• If the article is about how awful things have been for them, I think that’s highly insensitive to those who have had it far worse. Elaine and I have been adversely affected by covid, both directly and indirectly, but there’s a lady we know who in the past year has lost both her sister and her father. That kinda puts things in perspective.

  Unfortunately, I don’t know that I didn’t want to read such articles until I’ve read them. I can’t unread them, but I never share them or refer to them specifically. As far as I’m concerned, the less publicity they receive the better. I live in the (probably vain) hope that if enough people ignore them they will write about something else instead.

  For myself, I try to write only about what I know in relation to covid, which is about online education. This article is, of course, the exception.